-Down to Earth Tough new conditions emerge in the compromise deal to ease WTO intellectual property barriers to production of COVID-19 medical tools We are back to square one. Back to the beginning after 18 months of a wearying, tortuous series of negotiations that carried on while millions of lives hung in the balance — and still do. The waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights on medicines, vaccines and diagnostics to fight the...

-The Hindu There are many indices of proof that seriously contradict the tall claims of employment generation in India Reports on and the visuals of the recent agitations by railway job applicants reveal a widespread problem of massive job insecurity among India’s youth. Alarming figures of unemployment have been recurrent even before the huge dislocation unleashed by lockdowns imposed in 2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Much before the pandemic,...

-India Spend/ Scroll.in These programmes should look at skilling the workforce for paid jobs rather than unpaid, part-time volunteers. Central government programmes on water emphasise groundwater management by the community in a decentralised manner but, by and large, these schemes are silent on the availability, training and deployment of a skilled workforce for this task, especially in rural areas. Water management at the most decentralised, local levels is often a part-time, volunteer or...

-The Telegraph The report stated that the Indian subcontinent was the most polluted region of the world during 2021 Kolkata was the second most polluted metro city in India and 60th most polluted city in the world in 2021. The city’s annual PM (particulate matter) 2.5 level, the most toxic ultrafine particulate, was nearly 12 times above the LIMit set by the World Health Organization, says a recently released international report on air...

-The Tribune SDO fears damage to bundhs & stone studs may flood residential areas, agri land Yamunanagar: Despite efforts of the district authorities to stop illegal mining, the activity is going on unabated in the Pathrala rivulet in Jaitpur and Nagli villages, close to bundhs and stone studs built by the Irrigation Department to protect residential areas and agricultural land. On the complaint of Vinod Kumar, Sub Divisional Officer (SDO), Water Services Division,...